Study of Microfauna by Ben G Thomas - 2

"What the actual fuck!?" Ben stared at the landscape that greeted him. Rather than the towering white chalky cliffs that he and Doug had been walking by before there was a knee high ledge covered in a light green moss.


The brown patch caused by his handprint removed the former car park from the landscape and disguised the true extent of what had occurred to Ben.


"Where the hell am I?" Ben muttered to himself fear creeping into his voice, nothing in the laws of physics that he knew of could not explain this sudden change of landscape, surely this was some weird science fiction dream where he had been transported to a different area of the planet. He was utterly unaware about the truth of his circumstances and size. To make sure he was dreaming Ben reached to his opposite bare shoulder and pinched.


"Ow, fuck that hurt!" Ben winced as he began to realise that this wasn't a dream. His mind raced with the possibilities, had he experienced some kind of freak micro wormhole that had displaced him in space to this barren mossy landscape. It seemed like a valid possibility. Ultimately, however, it was currently less a question of How but more a question of Where? He didn't recognise this landscape at all.


His scientific brain came to a decision after a few moments of contemplation.


"I best explore at least then I might discover something new." He pondered "I wonder if this could even be another planet it seem pretty alien"


Standing to his full height Ben looked down at the small white rocky ledge and began to lift his tatty converse from the ground, placing it on the ledge as if climbing steps. As he added more weight to his foot as he took his step Ben watched fascinated as the ledge began to give way completely under his weight sending plumes of white dust up and onto his converse.


"Wow weird, must be a weak chalk of some kind" as his foot finally settled into the crater it had created in the soil he began to lift his other one and send it further inland from the ledge towards a small break in the moss. And unbeknownst to him towards what seemed like a small metallic insect.



—


Far below Ben's notice and within the truly colossal shadow he cast on the landscape Joe drove with dangerous speed towards the town of Charmouth away from this immense being that currently filled the sky behind him.


He had been heading towards the beach earlier to potentially go fossil hunting, however, when he approached the car park he found it completely gone, instead there was a rocky wasteland. Rubble was strewn everywhere, twisted metal glinting in the sun and most horrifically of all thick red gore gleaming sickeningly adding a truly terrifying aura to this previously gloriously sunny day.


Sat on the edge of this crater Joe sat with jaw agape holding down his lunch at the disgusting sight. Thoughts racing through his head as to what could have caused such a scene, a bomb perhaps or even a freak meteor that managed to make it through the atmosphere and crash here, those seemed unlikely though as any sign of flames or burning had been snuffed out, it was almost as if some huge object had pressed itself slowly but firmly into the ground crushing everything beneath it.


Soon, however, Joe got his answer as slowly but surely a huge mass began to shift beyond the cliff. First thick strands or fibres began to come into view, they quivered in the breeze yet sat like a thick woodland with no clearing. Before he could comprehend this though Joe watched as a vast pale wall emerged below the forest and the identity of the object became clear as joe shielded his eyes from the shimmering reflection from an enormous pair of glasses at least 200 feet wide that almost blinded him.


Joe jerked from the shock, accidentally hitting the horn on his steering wheel, in the confusion he lost track of the figure as the very ground under his car's tires began to tremble. Shaking out of his stupor Joe didn't stop to look at the now looming being instead throwing his car in reverse and in an almost action movie maneuver spun his car around speeding off back down the road.


Now he was speeding away at a seemingly safe distance Joe glances into his mirror, the being now fully visible behind him. For a moment Joe was transfixed, it was clearly a man possibly no older than him, maybe a little younger in his early 20s but most definitely a man, this man stood about 1000 feet tall behind the cliffs filling the mirror. This immense being was horrifyingly familiar to him, as a fan of paleontology he had watched his videos on the internet hundreds of times. This was clearly Ben Thomas the paleo youtuber, Joe would know him anywhere, he had had a crush on him since he did a video for shark week where he had filmed himself emerging from the ocean shirtless looking like a shot from James Bond.


This time however there was no water dripping from his athletic torso or through his slightly defined abs. Joe had been transfixed by the size of Ben that he had lost track of his driving and as he glanced back he saw that he was now heading for a field off to the side of the road, braking hard he spent his car spinning sideways through the wall, the screeching of tires and crashing of metal sent the sheep in the area running for their lives leaving him dazed and alone in this field.


Wincing as he began to stir he felt a jolt of pain go up his leg, looking down he saw his leg twisted and mangled in the accident facing the wrong direction. Trapped, terrified and alone in a field near the middle of nowhere, Joe could only stare in horror through the hole that used to contain his windscreen. He noticed only now the road he was driving along didn't exist, in fact the very landscape around the road was gone as was the distant cliff as it had sunk under the weight of the sole of Ben's colossal converse, the fabric of that titanic object flexing as the toes inside flexed with his step.


Slowly and surely off in the distance behind this foot the other began to rise, the huge black converse beginning to fill the sky, in the distance but then slowly encroaching overhead. Joe could only scream in primal terror as he witnessed flecks of dirt the size of houses dislodge from the tread of this enormous trainer, throwing dirt and dust into the sky as they impacted the ground.


Soon even the towering body of Ben began to disappear from view as the dirty sole of these well worn trainers replaced it leaving Joe cowering terrified in its shadow. Then suddenly faster than it rose it began to descend the thick rubber creaking as gale force wind blew away from the pressure of its descent drowning joe's scream in a cacophony of destruction. Then in an instant the metal prison he had been trapped in began to crumple, collapsing in on itself sending shards of glass in shredding his flesh, uet none of this mattered as soo his body was being compressed and mangled in a explosion of gore that would leave even the strongest stomachs sick. And with a final resounding boom the storm of destruction and screams was silenced.


—


Far above and blissfully unaware of the bug he had just crushed Ben continued his stroll inland, the ground compressing softly with every step he took. He found it fascinating how this land was firm and didn't stick to his soles yet was soft enough to compress leaving perfect impressions of his converse.


"How weird, I've never seen a substrate like this before. I wonder what it– holy shit!" Ben stopped in his tracks firmly planting his feet side by side as he stood staring in awe at what stood before him. There, covering an area about as large as his bedroom floor in university was a town.


His mouth hung agape as he stared at the matchbox sized houses and the town hall that would fit beneath his foot, he saw the church spire and realised it would not reach any higher than his ankle. And what was most surprising was that he could recognise the streets. This was the town of Charmouth, one he visited many times but now it lay in his shadow. Well he finally had his answer as to what had happened, but it was just as crazy, unlikely and impossible as being transported across space, he had grown to a size larger than any living thing on earth, and now he had to figure out how, perhaps the answer lay in Charmouth, and with that Ben took his first step as a Kaiju towards a terrified populous.